Dinos everywhere!

Did you know the month of November was, in some places, dedicated to dinosaurs? They call it Dinovember and last week at Baby Book Club, we had our own dino day. We were reading the classic Dinosaur Roar by Henrietta Stickland and Paul Stickland with great gusto.

As we read, we looked at dino teddies and plastic dinos, comparing how they looked and felt to their painted pals on the pages of the book. We chatted about opposites and practised being fast dinosaurs, fierce dinosaurs and, of course, LOUD dinosaurs.
After some singing, we went on a dinosaur hunt. Those dinos are cheeky creatures, they will hide everywhere, even on blank sheets of paper! But they were no match for our babies and toddlers who found them all out thanks to the magic of wet crepe paper.

As promised to the grown-ups, here are the links to some very cool dinosaur songs. Enjoy!

 

 
The Dinosaurs Song by Big Word Club
The Dinosaur Song by Johnny Cash 
Running from a T-Rex and The Dinovember Song by Daddy Donut

Dinosaur in My Backyard by Hullabaloo

More songs over here!

Baby Book Club, take 1

 Last week saw the first meeting of our Baby Book Club.
Books for babies? Does that sound like a funny idea to you? Surely they're not that interested? Surely they'd rather eat the books than read them?
Well, let me tell you that these babies had a ball at their first book club meeting. We had half a dozen very young readers (and their grown-up) with ages ranges from 17 weeks (yes, 'weeks') to 2 and 1/2.
We spread out mats in our room, took out our book for the day and got ready to make some noise.

This week we were reading The Tiny King by Taro Miura, the story of a really small king who feels lonely and sad in his big castle until something exciting happens (I won't tell you what, go read it!).
We spent some time measuring ourselves against the king (we were all so much bigger!), looking for him in the big pages, marching around like his soldiers and fake-splashing each other as we were in the royal bath tub.

Then we sang for a while and finished the session with some art. We made brilliant crowns out of paper plates: the grown-ups did the cutting and the little ones decorated their crowns with colourful puffed maize. We all felt very regal (like kings and queens) by the end.
Thanks to all who came!

Welcome to the SMGS Patron of Reading’s blog!

The what?

You probably have never heard of a Patron of Reading before and that’s not surprising. While there are lots in the UK, there are only 3 in Ireland and SMGS is the first primary school in the Republic to have one!

A Patron of Reading is a school’s designated children’s author with whom the school forms a special relationship. The whole idea of the role is to create a buzz around books and reading, and to encourage reading for pleasure.

You can find out more here: http://www.patronofreading.co.uk/

What does a Patron of Reading do?

A Patron of Reading doesn’t deal in homework or phonics or spelling. The Patron is all about discovering fun ways to interact with books and reading. Think reading challenges, reviewing competitions, creative writing workshops, bookish treasure hunts and so on.

The Patron is here for everyone in the school: the children, of course, but also the teachers and the parents.

Who is the SMGS Patron of Reading then?

Your first ever Patron of Reading is Juliette Saumande. Juliette is a French writer and translator of children’s books living in Dublin. She has over 30 titles to her name, ranging from picture books to non-fiction, game books to novels and book apps, in French and in English.

She is part of the Writers in School scheme. She is actively involved in Children’s Books Ireland both as Reviews Editor for its magazine – Inis – and as a regular Book Doctor in CBI’s very successful Book Clinics.

She has a blog and a website.

As Juliette has two children in the school, you’re likely to find her in the yard every morning. Come say hello! J